Red and yellow cards (from 1970)

Now as commonplace in a referee's equipment as a whistle, red and yellow cards were the brainchild of English referee Ken Aston, who officiated in the notorious 1962 World Cup game between Chile and Italy which became known as
the Battle of Santiago,
as well as the 1963 FA Cup final.

Aston was placed in charge of referees for the 1966 World Cup in England, when there was confusion after the hosts' stormy quarter-final against Argentina over which players had been cautioned, and Argentina skipper Antonio Rattin refused to leave the pitch after being sent off.

With language barriers no longer a problem, red and yellow cards were introduced at the 1970 World Cup and have been adopted worldwide since, with variants appearing in many other sports.

Sent off in a World Cup final

Pedro Monzon
and
Gustavo Dezotti
(Argentina v West Germany, 1990)

Marcel Desailly
(France v Brazil, 1998)

Zinedine Zidane
(France v Italy, 2006)

John Heitinga
(Netherlands v Spain, 2010)

What happened next?
Five yellow cards were shown by German referee Kurt Tschenscher in the opening game of the 1970 World Cup between Mexico and the USSR, but not a single red card was shown at the tournament.

On 14 June 1974, Chile's Carlos Caszely was the first man to be shown a red card in a World Cup, after picking up a second caution.

Substitutions (from 1970)

Jimmy Greaves was a spectator at the 1966 final

As
Geoff Hurst scored his hat-trick
for England in the 1966 final, the man he replaced, Jimmy Greaves, was watching from the sidelines, dressed in a suit and tie, because substitutes were not permitted at the World Cup until 1970.

England's super subs

David Platt
(v Belgium in 1990),
Michael Owen
(v Romania in 1998) and
Steven Gerrard
(v Sweden in 2006) are the only England substitutes to score at a World Cup

Keith Peacock of Charlton was the first substitute used in the English Football League on 21 August 1965, but at the World Cup, that honour went to Soviet forward Anatoliy Puzach in the
opening game of 1970
against Mexico.

What happened next?
Until 1990, teams were able to name five substitutes, of whom two could be used.

From 1994 onwards, any members of the squad - except suspended players - were eligible to come off the bench, with the 1994 limit of two outfield subs, plus a goalkeeper, superseded by the standard three-substitution rule since 1998.

Golden goals (1998-2002)

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France's Laurent Blanc scored the first World Cup golden goal in 1998

With teams increasingly cagey in extra time of drawn knockout games, and some seemingly happy to chance their arm in a penalty shootout, the 'golden goal' immediately won the game as soon as either side scored in extra time.

From 1993, it was trialled in minor competitions such as the Auto Windscreens Shield in England, when a golden goal twice decided the final (in 1995 and 1998), as it did in the 1996 and 2000 European Championship finals, and the 2001 Uefa Cup final.

World Cup golden goals

1998 (second round) -
Laurent Blanc
for France v Paraguay

2002 (second round) -
Henri Camara
for Senegal v Sweden

2002 (second round) -
Ahn Jung-Hwan
for South Korea v Italy

2002 (quarter-final) -
Ilhan Mansiz
for Turkey v Senegal

Four World Cup ties at two tournaments were settled by golden goals - Laurent Blanc in 1998, and Henri Camara, Ahn Jung-Hwan and Ilhan Mansiz in 2002.

Far from promoting attacking football, at times it seemed to have the reverse effect as teams played conservatively because they did not want to concede.

What happened next?
A variation, the 'silver goal' - whereby a knockout game would stop after the first period of extra time if one side were in front - was used at Euro 2004, but both golden and silver goals were discontinued that year.

Replays - or coin tosses or the drawing of lots - were traditionally the method used to separate sides level after extra time, with Italy beating Yugoslavia in the 1968 European Championship final replay, two days after the final.

Penalty shootouts were used in club competitions such as the European Cup from 1970 (although not in England's FA Cup until 1991), and first appeared at a major tournament when Czechoslovakia overcame West Germany in the Euro 76 final.

Adopted for the 1978 tournament, a shootout was not required at a World Cup until 1982, when West Germany knocked France out at the semi-final stage.

What happened next?
A World Cup match has been settled on penalties on 22 occasions, including the 1994 and 2006 finals.

Germany (if you include West Germany) are the most successful team, with four wins and no defeats, while England are the only team to have lost three World Cup shootouts and not won one.

Belgium, Paraguay and South Korea all hold a 100% record in shootouts, scoring five out of five kicks. Switzerland are the only country to miss every penalty they have taken in a shootout. They were beaten 3-0 by Ukraine in 2006.

Three points for a win (from 1994)

What else was new in 1994?

The
back-pass rule,
introduced in 1992 to encourage attacking play after a less than memorable 1990 World Cup, was in force

It was also the first year in which World Cup match officials were able to eschew the
traditional black shirts
in favour of brighter colours

Also making their World Cup debuts were
numbers
on the front of players' shirts, and
names
on their backs

Apart from penalty shootouts, the only person to miss a penalty at the tournament was singer
Diana Ross
during an elaborately choreographed opening ceremony

Three (rather than two) points for a win were introduced into the English Football League in 1981 in a bid to encourage more attacking play.

What happened next?
It made no difference in 1994, 2002 or 2006, when the same teams would have qualified from the group stage under two points for a win.

However, in 1998, Paraguay would have finished top of Group D ahead of Nigeria, which would have given them different opposition in the second round, when both teams bowed out.

In 2010, New Zealand - undefeated after drawing all three group games - would have qualified for the second round in place of Slovakia, who lost to the Netherlands in round two.

Golf carts for injured players (1994)

Italy legend Franco Baresi was injured during the final, but returned to play the full 120 minutes - and miss his penalty in the shootout

One of a raft of innovations for the 1994 World Cup in the United States was that, rather than being treated on the pitch or carried off on a stretcher, players would be driven off by an electric cart to receive medical treatment.

The vehicles used - compared to golf buggies or milk floats - added a slightly comedic air to a colourful World Cup.

What happened next?
Golf carts have not reappeared at any subsequent World Cups, although some occasional examples remain, such as at English club side Reading.

BBC links

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